Uncommon variable star 33 EP

HD 161796

RA 266.2311° · Dec 50.0443° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

33 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Supergiant +18
Variable star +5
Gently variable +4
Yellow-white F-type star +3
A named variable star +3

Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Yellow-white F-type star · +3
Supergiant · +18
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F3Ib — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Hercules.
Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.5) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag: -12.98
bv: 0.451
constellation: Her
luminosity: 13551894.1235
mag: 7.02
name: HD 161796
spect: F3Ib
var amplitude: 0.14
var designation: V814
var max: 6.942
var min: 7.082

Nearby objects

About HD 161796

HD 161796 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Her, shines at apparent magnitude 7.02 and has spectral type F3Ib.

Its spectrum reads F3Ib — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 161796 in the constellation Her. At apparent magnitude 7.02, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 161796 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HD 161796 is an uncommon variable star

HD 161796 scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Supergiant, Gently variable and A named variable star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.